Our experience with Google AdWords Rs. 1500 free ad credit promotional offer

For sometimes now Google is offering free ad credit worth Rs. 1500 to each new AdWords customer in India. The move is obviously to pick up otherwise slump AdWords sales in India.

Here are some observations about the execution of the offer and where it failed to work as expected.

Google has outsourced the execution of the promotional offer to a company called VCustomer. Google could have better put a line on the offer page (http://goo.gl/pE6f ) declaring this alliance to make customers comfortable and confident while answering a call from a stranger - VCustomer executive (which you can identify only when you request a mail from his official ID. Otherwise he identifies himself as an executive on behalf of Google).

Executive from VCustomer offers you help to setup the AdWords account which you easily agree to. Once created and logged in, the executive asks your Customer-ID to generate necessary permission messages to share your account with him. Once you give the permission, he can manage your account. Obviously the motive of the sharing was to assist a customer who is new to AdWords. But what if you already know AdWords inside out and does not need assistance of any kind. Then you CANNOT have Rs. 1500 free ad credit (this is what VCustomer executive told me). Surprising, isn't it? 

(being a veteran in AdWords and other Google products and technologies, I denied such sharing. More than ten days have passed and I am still waiting for some action from Google or VCustomer. I have written to Google about the same via a link provided inside AdWords and waiting for the reply)

Someone who worked with AdWords may argue what is the problem with sharing. You can always delete the sharing with other people/accounts from the control panel. Agree, but nowhere it is written that the sharing with VCustomer is like other normal sharing that can be deleted whenever I wish. Moreover Google is instructing that we have to make an agreement with VCusomer on this. Now what this agreement is all about?

As I see it, the only parameter which is important for Google is to ensure that the business claiming the free credit is a new AdWords customer and not an existing one. This can be verified very easily just by checking the domain with which the free credit is proposed to be used. That's all. Why this tiring long phone calls, following up of instructions and above all compulsion of sharing the account for Rs. 1500 free ad credit.

Promotion is promotion and it should come without any strings attached especially when it is coming from Google - at least I expect it in that way!! May be because I have always been a great admirer of Google for being specific and clear about everything they write or instruct - whether it T&C or technology tutorials. No question need be asked. 

But this time it is different. And in my opinion, this difference is creating a lot of confusion for otherwise an excellent promotional scheme. After all people have been ready to give a shot to AdWords and allocate some of their marketing budget to the powerful tool called search marketing. If the confusion continues, everyone involved will be in a lose-lose situation - service providers like us, Google and the customers.

Please share your views. It motivates us writing more useful stuff.